International (print edition)

Influenced by the English drape suits favoured by the Duke of Windsor, the zoot suit was all the rage among disfavoured youths in Second World War-era USA.

A remarkable silver oyster tureen with cover and stand hammered for $26,000 (£19,150) at Leland Little (20% buyer’s premium) in Hillsborough, North Carolina.

The Gilbert U-238 Atomic Energy Lab is perhaps the most notorious of all mid-century toys.

US bidders show great appetite for early 20th century display slabs hailing from the UK

This English mahogany hall bench dating from the first quarter of the 19th century sailed well above estimate at a sale in New Milford, Connecticut.

Long before it became the signature for the 1955-62 television show Alfred Hitchcock Presents, the director had perfected his self-portrait: an economic sketch of his profile rendered in just a couple of lines. Hitchcock would regularly draw and sign them for fans.

American actor, singer, dancer, director, and photographer Joel Grey (b.1932) is perhaps best known for his portrayal of the master of ceremonies in both the Broadway and film versions of the musical Cabaret.

A hand-coloured engraving of an Anglo- American naval battle in 1779 hammered for $5200 against a $1000-1500 guide at Swann Auction Galleries (25% buyer’s premium) in New York City.

Bidder was determined to secure items from their old house

Jean-Étienne Liotard (1702-89) made his name creating rococo pastel portraits of the European elite. However, in his formative years as a painter he had harboured loftier artistic ambitions as a history painter.

Sigismund III Vasa (1566-1632) was a man of many parts. His father was King John III of Sweden; his mother Catherine was the daughter of King Sigismund I of Poland.

Vase and clock produced around the same time nevertheless display significant design variation

The distinctive 'Portrait of a Lady' by the Hungarian artist Imre Goth was star of the show at an auction at Mehlis (24% buyer’s premium) in Plauen, Germany.

On numerous occasions, Théodore Deck, who has often been called the father of Art Nouveau ceramics, collaborated with the sculptor and designer Joseph Chéret, brother of the painter and lithographer Jules Chéret.

In 1896, Vilmós Zsolnay, director of the eponymous ceramics factory in the south-western Hungarian city of Pécs in Hungary, presented his newly invented Eosin lustre glaze at the National Millenium Exhibition in Budapest.

At a time when many of his painter colleagues were drawn to Italy for their artistic inspiration, Johann Moritz Rugendas, who was born in Augsburg in 1802, headed for more distant lands.

Having produced tableware for over 25 years, the Bavarian porcelain manufacturer Rosenthal established an artistic department in 1908.

When Martin Gropius, the founder of the Bauhaus design school, set out the prerequisites for its products, he reduced it to the formulas ‘practical, enduring, affordable, beautiful’, and ‘form follows function’.

An unusual piece of very early Meissen is coming up for sale at Metz in Heidelberg on October 18.

Provenance to a noble family and market freshness generate impressive results for rarities